Homeless Contradictions

In today's Calgary Herald (July 15, 2000) there was a picture of a homeless young couple huddled under an overpass. I have two problems with this particular case.

The newspaper photo shows a small black rectangular object on the woman's hip. I can't quite tell if it's a pager, a small cell phone, or a Blackberry. In one of her comments, she says "We've had the money for an apartment millions of times but we buy food, smokes, movies, go to bingo."

Shelter is one of the major priorities in life. In Calgary, even a July evening can be cold enough to see your breath on the air. I can't argue that shelter should come before food, but if they want shelter, why are they buying cigarettes, renting movies, or going to bingo? Why does she have a pager, assuming the cheapest of the options? It would appear that she would rather have these things than a home. As a taxpayer, why should I support a homeless shelter for her?